Lourdes replicas and Lourdes Grottoes anywhere in the world

If you know of any Lourdes grottoes in any part of the world, please tell us about it here and give some details.  I will start; there is a beautiful one at Earlwood in Sydney, Australia  in the grounds of the parish church. I have a Lourdes shrine in my backyard. It is pictured  below.

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Saint Philomena the princess of paradise (poem)

Here is my latest poem.

Saint Philomena the princess of paradise (poem)

Saint Philomena’s life
was a shinning light
that shone through the darkness
strong and bright.

The world’s false promises
we will not swallow
Saint Philomena’s example
we shall follow.

Saint Philomena Virgin Martyr,
from your throne of grace
cast a look of pity
upon the human race.

Saint Philomena the Wonder Worker
please hear us when we pray
and guide us through the challenges
that come to us today.

Please hear our prayers
and calm our fears
and guide us through
this vale of tears.

Hear us when we cry out to you
in our time of need
and your heavenly assistance
to us please do concede.

The Kookaburra in the old gum tree song legal case

I have no financial interest in this case.  Today I listened twice to the 70’s hit song, which the judge decided took part of the Kookaburra song, and which he then awarded part of the royalties to the owner of the Kookaburra song. For the life of me, I can’t see any part of the Kookaburra song in the other song.  I wonder how the judge can.

(Today the hit song was played twice on the radio on 2ch in Sydney.)

A knockout story of the intercession of Blessed Mary MacKillop of Australia

Surviving a heart attack

This following story comes from the USA. The priest mentioned in this story was born in Australia and grew up there. He was educated at a school run by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the order founded by Blessed Mary MacKillop) in Adelaide, South Australia.

Here is Father’s story. On Saturday the January 29th, 2005 I woke up feeling really out of sorts. I confess that I hadn’t felt this bad since the morning after my 21st birthday party in 1965!  Puzzled, I showered, and then noticed that both shoulders were aching badly; I had been treated a few years earlier for Bursitis in one shoulder, but this was like a double dose!  I fed my dogs and then made a cup of tea. (Things are always better after a cuppa!) and sat on the sofa, looking out the front door, but the aching got worse, and it became hard to breathe. For the life of me, I couldn’t think what was wrong. (At that time my only knowledge of coronary symptoms was numbness in the left arm and jaw.) I was wondering what to do, and what on earth was wrong. I suddenly saw a movement out the corner of my eye, in the small hallway to my right. I automatically turned to see what it was. In the hallway were standing Father David my assistant, and a Josephite nun, being an old Saint Joseph’s Russell Street boy, I immediately recognised “Mother Mary of the Cross” as we called her, the foundress of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart, in Adelaide in 1866. Father David, had died of Pancreatic Cancer in 2002! Yet, there they both stood; quite real, no lights, clouds, or music. And oddly, I felt too ill to be impressed or surprised at the time!

I blurted out to Father David (who was 64 at the time of death, but who now looked late twenties in cassock and surplice, but easily recognisable); “is this the big one?” – a private joke of ours from the TV show “Sanford & Son”. He just smiled and shook his head – he never actually spoke. I got the impression that he had somehow wrangled a “ride” on this expedition, and Blessed Mary had agreed, as I’d pay more attention if he was seen(?).  Mary, however, spoke; she was dressed in her usual habit; plus traveling mantle; (I still find Religious, disguised in lay clothes these days to be somehow dishonest, as if they’re ashamed to be identified.) She seemed also to be in her late twenties, quite alive, and solid, like Father David. Her welcoming smile changed to an expression of concern, and she said with a slight Scottish accent; “Quickly now, go and take two aspirin, and start coughing! You are having a heart attack, you must get help!” They then looked at each other, with a smile of satisfaction (I guess at completing their task?) Then they seemed to step back – and weren’t there!

So I got up, took the aspirin, and began coughing; it actually eased the chest discomfort. Then, I drove myself to the medical Center. I had Angioplasty two days later (after the entire nursing staff all peeked in to see the “idiot priest who drove himself here with a heart attack”.) During the Angioplasty, Blessed Mary Mackillop and Father David appeared again, and helped me when a problem developed.  The Cardiologist later informed me that the coughing most likely saved my life, as they were experimenting, and it appeared coughing kept the heart and lungs steady. Sure enough, ten months later, the AMA publicly announced on TV that aspirin combined with coughing was the way to go-until medical help arrived, yet, Blessed Mary of the Cross, came from heaven and gave me that information ten months earlier!  So to (soon to be) Saint Mary of the Cross I owe my life! As soon as I recovered I erected a shrine to her in our Chapel, and we celebrate her feast each year on the first Sunday in August.

The story above is one of several stories that have recently been added to my book: Help from Heaven (Answers to Prayer), that will be added to the second print edition of the book. The online version of the book is at:

http://missionbell.homestead.com/HelpFromHeavenBook.html

Overcoming infertility through prayer to St Philomena the Wonder Worker

Baby Filomena Elizabeth

The following story comes from Australia. It is told here in the words of Filomena’s mother Elizabeth. Having been married on the feast of Mary the Mother of God on the 1st of January, 2000, Francis and I were trusting that God might bless us with a baby at some stage.  This was going to be a big challenge for me, as I had never considered myself to be very maternal because my reproductive cycle was always extremely “light on” or in other words “spaced out.”  Nevertheless my husband was always trusting in God’s providence and he never doubted that one day we would have a baby. I think that I “flunked” the Billings Ovulation method because in the end, our Billings practitioner was not convinced that I had been fertile during any of the months that we had consulted her, so Francis and I stopped the analysis and started praying.  Instead of consulting the medical fraternity we consulted Jesus in the tabernacle and prayed many Saint Philomena Chaplets before a statue of Saint Philomena at Saint Patrick’s in the city.   In April 2001 I discovered that I was pregnant. The great miracle had happened.  Saint Philomena made her presence felt very strongly during the labour and we subsequently named our gorgeous daughter Filomena.  There were some special pointers that Saint Philomena had indeed interceded for us in bringing about this great favour. One of these indicators was a small incident with an Italian friend of ours.  She came and visited our baby daughter when she had just been born.  She then put a question to her father when she got back home asking him to guess what we had named our daughter.  He paused for a couple of seconds and then said “Filomena.” Our friend could not believe it!  Incredible, how did he guess it? Our friend said that the name Philomena is an extremely old fashioned name in Italy and a name that probably only one’s grandmother or great grandmother might have. We thank Saint Philomena for her intercession and pray that we will able to have a brother or sister for our little Filomena.

The story above is one of the many accounts of answers to prayer from my book entitled:

Help from Heaven (Answers to Prayer), which can be read free on-line by clicking here. Please pay a visit.

A wonderful conversion through the intercession of St. Philomena the Wonder Worker

This story comes from Sydney, Australia.  It is related by the mother of the boy, who is the recipient of the favour.

When one of our teenage sons began drinking heavily, smoking pot and being involved with a heavy metal rock band, my husband and I decided to give him over to the care of Saint Philomena, who we had heard was a patron saint of youth and a wonder worker.  We had heard her story and had been impressed by the many miracles which had been attributed to her intercession.

We prayed a novena and went to our first Mass in her honour.  As the Saturday night binges progressed to the whole weekend and then to week nights we decided to pray the novena continuously, imploring Saint Philomena desperately as our son’s condition continued to worsen. By this stage he would come home from work and prowl around restlessly until the phone rang and then he was out again. His pores oozed the sweet/stale smell of beer continuously.

Usually he was very gentle – even when he was drunk, but he became more agitated, blaming us for filling him with all the “God stuff” as he was growing up.  This occurred on the Saturday night of the August Mass in honour of Saint Philomena. The week that followed was very distressing.  He went off to work on the Friday at 5am as usual and I was surprised when he came home at 1.15 p.m. – his usual home time on Fridays, but lately he had gone straight to the pub and we were lucky to see him all weekend.  My son came out of his room and put a broken CD into the bin. I was again surprised and so had a look at the title of the CD. He had dozens of heavy metal CDs. It was named “Diabolos Music.” I said, as I had often said, that means Devil’s music and that it was dangerous.  Usually he would laugh if off, but this time he said “I know mum.”

He brought out the printed lyrics of the song and said that the words to this song kept going through his mind and that he felt that he was going mad, but that he was at peace now. I was almost too scared to ask him why? how?  when? I just asked if he had called on God and he said “Yes.”  At work that morning he had experienced an overwhelming sense of peace and love. A feeling of great burden had lifted off him.  He felt the presence of a woman.  He looked around but there was no one there.

My son still had the music filling his head – so I gave him a much better tape to listen to. When his mate rang that night, before he left, he asked us to pray for him and said that he would not be

late. After a couple of Rosaries and Divine Mercy Chaplets, we were disappointed as the night wore on, because our son did not turn up.  Finally around 2 to 3am he came in.  My husband hurried out and I started another Rosary – hoping that my husband wouldn’t ruin the obvious start that my son had made.  When my husband finally came back to bed a few hours later, he said that they had been talking and praying the Rosary together.

My son had waited back to make sure that his friends got home safely. He wanted to go and tell them about his experience. They were not interested and as he listened to them, all he would hear was “hate” in their talk. That morning August the 15^th was the feast of the Assumption.  He went to the Sacrament of Confession and afterwards he shed many tears.  Our eyes were also filled with tears of joy. He went to three of the four Masses that weekend and did so for many months after.

He has never drunk alcohol, smoked pot, nor has he listened to heavy metal rock music since that time.  He threw out all his CDs and heavy metal T-shirts.  His conversion was sudden. We felt that it was miraculous. He now has a great love for Jesus and Mary, for Saint Philomena, the Pope and for the Catholic Church.

Looking back now we can see the strong spiritual battle that was going on for him in those last few weeks.  He even said a couple of times that he was tempted to go and kill someone.  We continue to pray the novena to Saint Philomena for our son for his continuing conversion and thanksgiving and “with joy in our hearts, we will bless God who is admirable in His Saints.” Our son attended the World Youth Day in Rome.  (M.W.)

Editor’s note: This conversion took place in the late nineties and is still going strong today.

This is one of the many story in my book entitled: Help from Heaven (Answers to Prayer), which can be read free on-line by clicking here.

Please pop over and have a look.  I promise that you will not be dissappointed.

Help the Holy Souls in Purgatory and read inspiring testimonies of their  powerful intercession for their benefactors

and then teach this devotion to others, so that they will pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory as well.

Send prayer petitions to Blessed Mary MacKillop

This is the link to the website of the shrine of Blessed Mary MacKillop at North Sydney, where her body is buried in the chapel:

http://www.marymackillop.org.au/prayer-space/add-a-prayer.cfm?loadref=33

You can send prayer petitions to her shrine via this link.

The healing of Anorexia Nervosa (Blessed Mary MacKillop)

Rose was suffering from Anorexia Nervosa. Theresa a friend of Rose’s mother heard about this and commenced a novena in honour of Blessed Mary MacKillop to obtain a healing for Rose. Theresa travelled the one hour trip to Sydney on the train each Monday of the novena, to attend an early morning Mass at the shrine of Blessed Mary MacKillop. Half way through the novena, it became more difficult for Theresa, because of a train strike. She could still catch a train to the city, but from there on she had to deal with unfamiliar bus routes, however she still managed to get to the Masses on time.

Another event also happened half way though the novena. Rose was rushed to hospital because she was dying. A doctor at the hospital helped Rose face up to what she was doing to herself by excessive dieting. The doctor asked her to have a good look at herself in a full length mirror and then asked her this question: “What do you see?”  Rose’s answer was “Skin and bones.” This was the break through that was needed. Rose was out of her denial about her dieting and what it had done to her.  By the end of the nine week novena, Rose was eating normally. She was healed. Since then she has completed her schooling and has obtained employment and is doing well.

This is one of the stories in my book: Help from Heaven (Answers to Prayer), which can be viewed free on-line here.

A providential happening during WWII

During WWII my dad was in the Australian army.  He caught a military boat from the Eastern side of Australia to Fremantle, Western Australia. He was in Fremantle for about three days and was supposed to catch another military boat which was going to sail up towards Japan. My dad and some other soldiers missed the boat by about half an hour. They were put into the local jail for about two weeks until the next military boat was due. (The jailing was a punishment given to my dad and the other soldiers by the Australian army for missing the boat.)  Missing the boat was actually providential for my dad and the other soldiers.  The boat that he was supposed to have sailed in, was torpedoed by the Japanese and sank to the bottom of the ocean.

Many things in life look as though, they are bad for us, when in truth they are actually good  for us, however it might not be as apparent as it was in my father’s case.

Cute Koala

Cute isn’t he?  Koalas are not bears. They are marsupials.

The Sydney Opera House

Do lawmakers know that unborn babies are people?

Abortion is murder whether a politician believes it or not, just as my second name is Ann whether a person believes it or not. Being an abortionist is not a great doctoring job. Many abortionists are there because it is a good money making venture. Fortunately they are not beyond help. Father Pavone has helped many of them in their conversion process and the converted abortionists now help to fight against the ugly business that they were once involved in.

There was a case here in (Sydney) Australia, where a man kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach, causing her to lose the baby, (which is also his child). He went to jail for 10 years for killing the baby and I think that he is still there. This is a correct decision and I applaud it, but  it is in an Australian state where abortion is practiced, as it is practiced just about everywhere else. What a contradiction.  I am glad that I am not an unborn baby today. It is a dangerous time for them. Cases like that of the Sydney woman which highlight the contradictions in law regarding the unborn, at least give a faint glimmer of hope, that there will one day be some sanity and proper protection of the unborn. I have been told on another forum of similar contradictions in U.S. law. It also makes me wonder if some politicians actually know that the unborn are real people, but chose in the case of abortion to ignore what they clearly understood when it came to the case which is mentioned in this posting of the Sydney woman who was kicked in the stomach.  I also wonder what those who favour and push for abortion think about the Sydney woman’s case. It must be a thorn in their side.

Abortion is murder whether a politician believes it or not, just as my second name is Ann whether a person believes it or not. Being an abortionist is not a great doctoring job. Many abortionists are there because it is a good money making venture. Fortunately they are not beyond help. Father Pavone has helped many of them in their conversion process and the converted abortionists now help to fight against the ugly business that they were once involved in. There was a case here in (Sydney) Australia, where a man kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach, causing her to lose the baby, (which is also his child). He went to jail for 10 years for killing the baby and I think that he is still there. This is a correct decision and I applaud it, but  it is in an Australian state where abortion is practiced, as it is practiced just about everywhere else. What a contradiction.  I am glad that I am not an unborn baby today. It is a dangerous time for them. Cases like that of the Sydney woman which highlight the contradictions in law regarding the unborn, at least give a faint glimmer of hope, that there will one day be some sanity and proper protection of the unborn. I have been told on another forum of similar contradictions in U.S. law. It also makes me wonder if some politicians actually know that the unborn are real people, but chose in the case of abortion to ignore what they clearly understood when it came to the case which is mentioned in this posting of the Sydney woman who was kicked in the stomach.  I also wonder what those who favour and push for abortion think about the Sydney woman’s case. It must be a thorn in their side.

The breaking of the drought (poem)

It hadn’t rained for quiet a while

the ground was baked and dry.

Our prayers went up to heaven

and the clouds began to cry.

New life sprouted everywhere

The fields were lush and green,

With streams and rivers filling up

It all seemed like a dream.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the death of Blessed Mary MacKillop and also her feast day.

Today is the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Blessed Mary MacKillop of Australia and it is also her feast day.

She was a much misunderstood woman who suffered greatly at the hands of the clergy particularly the bishops.  Blessed Mary MacKillop was unjustly accused of so much, for example, each month she suffered great pain for a couple of days and had to stay in bed on these occasions.  There were no suitable pain killers in those days, so the doctor suggested that she take a tablespoon of brandy to dull the pain. Another nun even measured it out and administered it to her.  Despite this she was accused of being an alcoholic!  She was pronounced “excommunicated” by a bishop when she was just asking for a clarification of his words. This was actually an invalid action on the part of the bishop and was fixed up when he was dying. There is heaps to say about Blessed Mary MacKillop and I can also relate some great stories about her intercession. Do yourself a favour and read the story of her life.

Favours granted through the intercession of Saint Mary of the Cross (Mary MacKillop of Australia) Feast day August 8.

Prayers to find a good spouse

A lady in the USA asked for a petition to be placed at the shrine of Blessed Mary MacKillop in Australia.  One at the petitions was for her 28 year old daughter Lyn to find a good husband. A few days after the petition was placed at Blessed Mary Mackillop’s tomb, Lyn’s mother received a telephone call from a man that Lyn had dated eight years ago. Lyn and her former boyfriend went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, in France to pray there to discern God’s will for their lives.  They have since married. Another of the mother’s petitions to Blessed Mary MacKillop was also answered.  Her son decided to give up living with his girlfriend.  They started to attend Mass regularly and also began making preparations to marry.

Blessed Mary MacKillop “fixes” a microwave oven

I had arranged to go on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Blessed Mary MacKillop at North Sydney.  On the morning that I was due to go I discovered that my microwave oven had stopped working. When I went to the shrine I prayed for many important petitions.  I also mentioned to Blessed Mary, the little matter of my microwave oven. When I arrived home I tried my microwave oven again.  It was still not working.  After this I slammed the oven door very hard and the microwave started working!  It seems that the only thing that was wrong was that there was a fault in the closing mechanism of the door. The microwave oven was not fully closing. It only appeared to be fully closed.

These stories are in my book Help from heaven (Answers to prayer) which can be read free-online by pressing here.

Would you like to join a Living Rosary? Information here.

Dear Friends,
Once again I am in the process of filling up a Living Rosary Circle (group). This is the way that it works: Each Living Rosary Circle consists of twenty people, because there are twenty decades in the Rosary.

Each person in the Circle says one decade of the Rosary each day. The twenty decades of the Rosary are divided up among them.

The most important thing to know: is that when each of the twenty people says their assigned decade each day, a Living Rosary is created: which means that the five Joyful, the five Sorrowful, the five Luminous, and the five Glorious Mysteries are said every day by the members of the circle.

Each of the twenty people although saying only one decade a day, gains the whole twenty decades of the Rosary each day to their spiritual credit. That is because they are united with the other people in the Living Rosary Circle. That is a good deal!

(I make up each person an individual chart so that they have a different decade to say each month. Each Living Rosary Circle runs for a period of twenty months).

If you would like to join, please email me your name and snail mail address, so that I can post you the card and other Catholic information that might be of interest to you.

If you live outside Australia, I can speed things up by emailing you your chart before the snail mail reaches you.

Greetings and prayers for all your intentions,
Mary Ann
(Sydney, Australia)
P.S. Each of the Living Rosary Circles is allocated a special name (the name of a saint).
Email me at:

catacomb@bigpond.com

Please put the words:  The Living Rosary in the subject line of the e-mail.

Unrelated but useful information.

The powerful intercession of the Holy Souls in Purgatory for their benefactors and ways to help them

The web page has accounts of the intercession of The Holy Souls in Purgatory, for their benefactors in cases of illness, addictions, cars that won’t start, infertility problems, protection in accidents, conversion, chronic insomnia, their help for people who are experiencing major trouble with city councils, success with projects, employment, real estate, finding lost property and trouble with relations, etc. and prayers and ideas on how to help The Holy Souls in Purgatory.

Read my book: Help from heaven (Answers to prayer) free on-line

Please let others know about the book, so that they can benefit from it also.

Saving paper and money (commonsense)

When I was doing a secretarial course which included learning to type on a typewriter, I did one of the specified exercises, which involved formatting a long business letter. The teacher said that I had done it well, but that it should not have been continued on the back of the paper, but on a second sheet of paper.  I have always thought that was idiotic. What a waste of trees.  Blessed Mary MacKillop of Australia had an interesting approach.  She wrote her letter down the page (in the portrait position) and then turned the paper to a landscape position and wrote the rest of the letter across it!  This would have been a bit of a problem for the reader, but she was a very neat writer and it could be read.  Later on she also learnt to type on a typewriter. No doubt she did her double writing technique on the back of the paper also.

She was a greenie before greenies existed!  Now I hear that the USA wants to save money in order to pay for their immoral health scheme, (which has everything tied to abortion)  so one of the government departments there is saving money by using both sides of the paper!  It is amazing that it took them so long to think of something so simple!

A big compliment for the Sydney Opera House!

EWTN’s programe: Life on the Rock’s opening segment has music and images.  In this segment it has a picture of the Sydney Opera House with the word Heaven underneath it.  As an Australian and a Sydney resident, I accept the compliment although I know that heaven will be much better than the Sydney Opera House.

Have you received any favours through the Devotion to The Divine Mercy or from St Faustina ?

Have you received any favours through the Devotion to The Divine Mercy?  Please share them with us here.  Please tell if this was through the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, the Three O’Clock prayer for the hour of great Mercy etc.  Also did you receive any favours through St Faustina the apostle of Divine Mercy.  I would like to hear about that also. Telling your story will encourage others to turn to the Divine Mercy.

Timely help (Our Lady of Mount Carmel)

Some years ago, there was a period when it rained almost continuously for ten weeks.  This made it difficult for people to get their washing dry. On one occasion because everything was still drying, I literally had no jumpers, left to put on my children. It was time for them to walk to school and all that I could do was say a prayer for some help in the matter. I prayed the prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel which is called the Flos Carmeli, (The Flower of Carmel). After saying the prayer, I opened the front door. There on the verandah was a cardboard box filled with clean ironed jumpers, slacks, jeans and blouses. I later learned that they had been put there by a lady who lived in the next street, who had received them from a cousin and had no need of them. This gift was the answer to my prayer.  Jumpers are known as sweaters in the USA.   (Mary Ann), Australia.
 
The feast day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is July 16.
 
This story is in my book: Help from heaven (Answers to prayers). The book can be read free on-line at the link provided. I would appreciate any feedback that you would like to make on the book.